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Two Planned Residential Developments Align With Clarkstown’s Long-Term Vision
The development at Nannawitt Commons, at 250 South Middletown Road, an affordable senior housing project a stone’s throw from Nanuet’s Main Street shopping district, is advancing.
On top of that, the acquisition of 5.5 acres of vacant land along West Prospect Street in the Nanuet Transit Oriented Development (TOD) by Nanuet Commons LLC, will spur the residential development plans Clarkstown envisioned more than ten years ago when it started laying the groundwork for a new residential neighborhood in walking proximity to Metro North’s Nanuet train station, according to Town Supervisor George Hoehmann.
“It’s good news because this will jumpstart the TOD,” said Hoehmann.
Counted together, the two projects will add more than 300 residential units including studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments to the hamlet.
The plan at Nannawitt Commons call for a three-story, senior housing complex with 27 one-bedroom and 25 two-bedroom rental apartments with 100 parking spaces on site. The building is slated to be about 65,000 square feet on 2.52 acres of PO (Professional/Office) zoned land, where a Chase Bank building sits now. The complex will face South Middletown Road with secondary emergency access on Clifford Court.
Low-income seniors who are at or below 80 percent of the AMI (Area Medium Income) in Clarkstown will qualify for the housing. Clarkstown residents will get a preference on the units, according to Larry Regan, a principal at Regan Development, the project developer.
The project’s location, located in the Nanuet Hamlet, enables the developer to apply for a Special Permit, which affords greater density, more square footage and additional units. The developer must demonstrate the availability of public transportation, and pedestrian access to off-site locations for retail services, medical care, or recreation.
The site at 250 South Middletown Road is situated across from and just north of a small strip center, and just south of Nanuet’s Main Street, but there are no sidewalks connecting the site to the Main Street shopping district. In February, Rockland County meted out $13.5 million in revolving loans to four affordable housing developers through its Housing Actions Loan Opportunity (HALO) program. Nannawitt Commons was awarded $5 million.
The County has supported the project with a commitment to share the cost of constructing sidewalks from a “sidewalk creation initiative” spearheaded by the County Legislature, connecting Nannawitt Commons to Nanuet’s Main Street on South Middletown Road, a county road. Details of the cost sharing arrangement are still being finalized.
“The County is finalizing an agreement with our local municipalities to install sidewalks along county roads,” said Rockland County Legislator Raymond Sheridan III. “I was approached about adding sidewalks in this area specifically, and I’m pleased to share that the developer has agreed to partner with us to help cover part of the costs for this property.”
The project developer must appear before the Clarkstown Planning Board and the Town Board to secure a Special Permit.
Nanuet TOD
Meanwhile, five commercial lots on Prospect Avenue in Nanuet totaling just over 5.5 acres in the heart of Clarkstown’s Nanuet Transit Oriented Development recently sold for $15.5 million. The sellers were 18 & 29 Prospect NY LLC and Rimzco LLC. The buyer is The Nanuet Commons LLC.
No plans for the property have been formally presented to either Clarkstown’s Technical Advisory Board or to the Planning Board, but the property is zoned TOD-1 and TOD-2, which allow multifamily residential development. According to a source, the plan for Nanuet Commons includes about 250 one- and two-bedroom apartments, a green space, and a small park that will be open to the public.
In June 2019, Clarkstown voted to rezone the heart of Nanuet’s business district into a cluster of dense residential housing and light commercial designed for walkability and train use. The 37-acre TOD caps housing units at 500. The original plan called for 750 housing units but was downsized to satisfy New York State Department of Transportation’s traffic concerns on state roads.
An earlier attempt to acquire the land for $20 million and develop the property by Sterling Development Group of Livingston, NJ with 252 units of multi-family housing was abruptly withdrawn in 2023.
Zoning in the Nanuet TOD limits both the number of units per acre and the size of the units. Construction of residential units in the TOD-1 is limited to three-story buildings and a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment units. Building height in the TOD-2 zone allows up to four-story residential buildings. There has been no residential development in the Nanuet TOD since its creation in 2019.
Clarkstown’s vision for robust housing and its re-zoning of the New City Hamlet has spurred several planned residential developments along North and South Main Street. Future plans include upzoning of other hamlets in the town that would allow for additional density and infill projects in hamlet centers. Upzoning is the process of changing zoning laws to allow for higher-density development, typically by increasing the allowable number of housing units or building heights in a given area. It’s a policy aimed at increasing housing supply, which can help address affordability issues and accommodate population growth.
